1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical instruments and, more specifically, to vibrating surgical instruments for blunt dissection of tissue.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In many types of surgery, it is necessary to remove or displace tissue in order to perform a procedure. Often, this is to improve a surgeon's vision in an area of interest where more delicate operations need to be performed or may be to remove tissue which is in the way for a procedure as it prevents the surgeon from accessing the area of interest with the tools they need to operate on it. One of the more common types of surgery where removal of tissue is necessary is on surgery related to the bowels where it is often necessary to remove tissue in the form of adhesions to access the bowels.
Depending on the nature of the tissue to be removed and its location, various different types of tools are desirable. The most common type of surgical tool to remove tissue is undoubtedly a sharp device such as a scalpel, blade, saw, or drill. These types of devices are necessary for virtually any type of surgery to be performed as they allow the surgeon to cut through what would otherwise be a seamless body structure. In many situations, however, they are preferably not used as should the cutting instrument slip slightly, a dangerous situation could occur. When a surgeon is working near essential blood vessels, organs, or other sensitive structures, misplacement or deviation of a sharp device can result in potential injury.
One way to avoid this type of injury is to utilize a tool that is suitable for separating two types of matter along an existing seam or connection, but is generally unsuitable for “cutting” into seamless matter. This is often referred to as a blunt dissection instrument. Blunt dissection generally allows tissues to be dissected atraumatically by simply separating the tissue along existing seams or natural planes. That is, the tool separates along natural separations, conjunctions, or faults, without the tool creating a new seam. This type of instrument facilitates in surgical exposure and tissue retraction both because of reducing danger to neighboring tissue and reducing trauma from manmade separation.
While blunt dissection is a useful medical procedure, the tools for blunt dissection are often ill suited for the task. Current tools may not provide sufficient force to separate structures without an existing seam and are generally incapable of generating a new seam or separation on its own.